Like Watching a Motorway Crash: Exploring the Embarrassment Humor of The Office
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Kai Hanno Schwind
Kai Hanno Schwind is currently finishing his PhD project entitled “Found in translation:The Office – a case study in transnational format adaptation” for the joint program between the University College of Lillehammer and the Department of Media and Communications at the University of Oslo. He has a masters in theatre, film and media studies and English literature from Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt and has worked as a print and radio journalist, as well as writer, producer and director for radio comedy, radio plays and audiobooks in his native Germany.
Abstract
This article focuses on the construction of embarrassment humor in the British sitcom The Office (BBC 2001–2003) and will identify various aspects of this kind of humor at work by employing a multilayered analysis of the format. The analysis will focus on the specific discourse of embarrassment humor and its relation to performance and narrative will be examined through textual analysis and contextualization. Finally, I will propose an embarrassment trigger model, which will provide an overview of the various areas of social interaction and conduct that the format’s humourous discourse draws from. The study will evaluate in what ways The Office’s embarrassment humor challenges an audience’s viewing pleasure by negotiating issues of empathy and moral disengagement with the conventions of darker forms of mediated humor and comedy.
About the author
Kai Hanno Schwind is currently finishing his PhD project entitled “Found in translation: The Office – a case study in transnational format adaptation” for the joint program between the University College of Lillehammer and the Department of Media and Communications at the University of Oslo. He has a masters in theatre, film and media studies and English literature from Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt and has worked as a print and radio journalist, as well as writer, producer and director for radio comedy, radio plays and audiobooks in his native Germany.
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©2015 by De Gruyter Mouton
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Understanding the Sequential Resources for Doing Humor in the Language Classroom
- Radical Clowning: Challenging Militarism through Play and Otherness
- Like Watching a Motorway Crash: Exploring the Embarrassment Humor of The Office
- Why All Dictators Have Moustaches: Political Jokes in Contemporary Belarus
- “Some Species of Contrasts”: British Graphic Satire, the French Revolution, and the Humor of Horror
- Sexist Humor in Facebook Profiles: Perceptions of Humor Targeting Women and Men
- Book Reviews
- Jocelyn Chey and Jessica Milner Davis: Humor in Chinese Life and Letters: Classical and Traditional Approaches
- Sam Friedman: Comedy and Distinction; the Cultural Currency of a ‘Good’ Sense of Humour
- Blank, Trevor J: The Last Laugh: Folk Humor, Celebrity Culture, and Mass-Mediated Disasters in the Digital Age
- Dynel Marta: Developments in Linguistic Humour Theory. Topics in Humor Research. Vol. 1
- Acknowledgement of Referees
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Understanding the Sequential Resources for Doing Humor in the Language Classroom
- Radical Clowning: Challenging Militarism through Play and Otherness
- Like Watching a Motorway Crash: Exploring the Embarrassment Humor of The Office
- Why All Dictators Have Moustaches: Political Jokes in Contemporary Belarus
- “Some Species of Contrasts”: British Graphic Satire, the French Revolution, and the Humor of Horror
- Sexist Humor in Facebook Profiles: Perceptions of Humor Targeting Women and Men
- Book Reviews
- Jocelyn Chey and Jessica Milner Davis: Humor in Chinese Life and Letters: Classical and Traditional Approaches
- Sam Friedman: Comedy and Distinction; the Cultural Currency of a ‘Good’ Sense of Humour
- Blank, Trevor J: The Last Laugh: Folk Humor, Celebrity Culture, and Mass-Mediated Disasters in the Digital Age
- Dynel Marta: Developments in Linguistic Humour Theory. Topics in Humor Research. Vol. 1
- Acknowledgement of Referees